It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
Thought is essentially practical in the sense that but for thought no motion would be an action, no change a progress.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thought drives actions and progress; without it, movement lacks purpose.
In this quote, George Santayana emphasizes the fundamental role of thought in facilitating action and change. He suggests that without the cognitive processes of contemplation and intention, mere physical movement cannot be classified as purposeful action or significant progress. This underscores the crucial relationship between thought and the ability to achieve meaningful outcomes in life.
Themes
ThoughtActionChangeProgressPhilosophyIntention
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about motivation, I might say, 'As George Santayana said, thought is essential for action and progress.'
More from George Santayana
All quotes βThe working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.
George SantayanaRead
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colours of life in all their purity.
George SantayanaRead
Not to believe in love is a great sign of dullness. There are some people so indirect and lumbering that they think all real affection rests on circumstantial evidence.
George SantayanaRead
To feel beauty is a better thing than to understand how we come to feel it. To have imagination and taste, to love the best, to be carried by the contemplation of nature to a vivid faith in the ideal, all this is more, a great deal more, than any science can hope to be.
George SantayanaRead
The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.
George SantayanaRead
Similar quotes
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Sin, also for those who don't have faith, exists when one goes against one's conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.
Pope FrancisRead
A man's personal defects will commonly have with the rest of the world precisely that importance which they have to himself. If he makes light of them, so will other men.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Religious faith not only lacks evidence, its independence from evidence is its pride and joy, shouted from the rooftops.
Richard DawkinsRead
Flying has torn apart the relationship of space and time: it uses our old clock but with new yardsticks.
Charles LindberghRead
The atheist does not say 'there is no God,' but he says 'I know not what you mean by God; I am without idea of God'; the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation. ... The Bible God I deny; the Christian God I disbelieve in; but I am not rash enough to say there is no God as long as you tell me you are unprepared to define God to me.
Charles BradlaughRead